Camp Reynolds
Camp Reynolds was a World War II United States Army Camp from 1942 to 1946. Its original name was Shenango Personnel Replacement Depot. On September 21, 1943, it was renamed Camp Reynolds after PA Civil War hero Major General John Fulton Reynolds who was killed on July 1, the first day of the Battle of Gettysburg. The camp was located in Pymatuning & Delaware Township in Mercer County, Pennsylvania.
In 1994, the Pennsylvania Historical & Museum Commission placed a historical marker there to note the historic importance of the location.
History
On June 24, 1942, the United States Department of War announced the authorization and award of contracts totaling more than $3,000,000 for construction of a military installation near Shenango, Pennsylvania to receive, process, and forward both officers and enlisted men for service during World War II. Acquisition of land in Pymatuning Township, Pennsylvania, began almost immediately with cooperative landowners from a total of 26 farms paid an average of $70 per acre for their potato fields. The first parcel of 57 acres was purchased for $40,500 and included space for warehouses. An additional 114 acres were then acquired at a cost of $10,252. By the time land procurement ended in November 1942, 3,300 acres had been acquired at a total cost of $182,000.Initially, military leaders determined that time spent at the camp by individual members of the military would depend on the demand for replacements and each serviceman's branch of operations. Ultimately, more than a million troops passed through the camp on their way to East Coast ports of embarkation and the war's European theater of operations.
Construction phase
Upon receiving their contract awards, Gannett, Eastman, Fleming of Harrisburg, and Mellon-Stuart Construction Co. of Pittsburgh designed and built the encampment to last just three years, but also to be unlike any other military depot at the time. Upon completion, it would include barracks for 30,000 troops, chapels, dayrooms, fire stations and hundreds of fire hydrants, guest quarters, gymnasiums and three obstacle courses, a 100-bed hospital, latrines, libraries, mess halls, motor pool, post exchanges, rifle range, service clubs, theaters, and warehouses. The base would also be equipped with its own infrastructure, including more than 100 miles of electric lines, 25 miles of paved roads, 22 miles of water lines, two 250,000-gallon water tanks, a sewage treatment plant, 18 miles of sewer lines, and a waste disposal facility.Civil Service examiners began taking applications for immediate employment hires. The project then ramped up quickly as thousands of engineers and construction workers arrived and 4,200 men employed by the main contractors and 24 subcontractors began working 10-hour days and six-day weeks after ground for the first supply building was broken near the overhead highway bridge on Route 18 on July 8. In short order, the War Department ordered the expansion of the camp's battalion area to accommodate an additional 30,000 troops, followed by a subsequent expansion of the camp's housing capacity to 90,000 troops.
Although trailer camps were established to handle the sudden influx of workers and their families, housing facilities were limited. As a result, Greenville's population increased by 60 percent - from 8,149 in 1940 to 13,015 in 1943.
Although the final project cost for construction of the entire camp complex was never officially announced, one figure revealed that just one segment of the project cost $624,466. The cost for the entire camp complex was reported to have topped $19,000,000. Post-war, the ten dormitory units to the west of Route 18 were converted into a county-owned housing project while the 250,000-gallon, red and white water tanks continued to supply water to the area for many years, and helped contribute to the area's housing growth during the 1950s.
Life at and beyond the camp
During its heyday, the camp had its own post office and published its own weekly newspaper. Printed at the Record-Argus, the Victory News was distributed between April 15, 1943, and November 30, 1944. Servicemen also made their own fun, organizing baseball, boxing and track and field events, a drum and bugle corps, several dance bands, stage productions, and bowling, handball and basketball leagues with one cage tournament attracting roughly 23 GI teams. Allegheny, Westminster, Geneva, and Bethany Colleges also made exhibition basketball appearances.Stage, screen and radio headliners also offered troops a break from military life. Among those making appearances at the camp were: Louis Armstrong, Bonnie Baker, Blue Barron, Major Bowes and his Amateur Hour, the Camel Caravan, Stu Erwin and the cast of "Goodnight Ladies", Judy Garland, Benny Goodman, the Harmonic Rascals, Andy Kerr, Wayne King, the Mills Brothers, Olsen and Johnson's "Helzapoppin", June Preisser, Art Rooney, contralto Alice Stewart, Bob Strong, the cast of the "Truth or Consequences" radio show, and Virginia Weidler. Boxers Joe Louis, Sugar Ray Robinson, Two-Ton Tony Galento, and Fritzie Zivic also made appearances, as did billiard experts Irving Crane and Charles Peterson, members of the Pittsburgh Pirates and Cleveland Indians, Governor Edward Martin, and a number of touring OSO shows and amateur theatrical groups from Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Ohio, Youngstown, Ohio, and Sharon, Pennsylvania.
In addition, attractive bus and rail fares enabled many soldiers to travel to Sharon, New Castle, Farrell, Youngstown, and other nearby cities to seek rest and relaxation before their departure overseas, and the United Service Organization also helped ensure that men were kept busy during their off-duty hours away from camp. With help from the War Department, the organization built an $86,000 recreation center in Greenville's Riverside Park, where 812,530 servicemen were entertained over an 18-month period; 475,000 men also visited the USO's Buhl Club in Sharon.
Commanders
Camps Shenango and Reynolds had six commanders. First to arrive during the very early construction days was Lt. Col. G.H. Sunderman, who came Oct. 1, 1942, and was followed by a quartermaster detachment of seven men from Fort Monroe, VA. On Nov. 4, Lt. Col. George H. Cherrington arrived and was followed by the first components of the headquarters company from New Cumberland, PA. Colonel Zim E. Lawhon took over on May 27, 1943, coming from the general staff of the War Department. It was during Colonel Lawhon's command that the name of the camp was changed from Shenango on September 21, 1943, to Reynolds in honor of General John F. Reynolds, who was a hero of the Civil War and had been felled by a Confederate sharpshooter on the opening day of the Battle of Gettysburg.After Lawhon's death came Col. George E. Couper, who commanded until Dec. 23 when Brig. Gen. Jesse A. Ladd was designated commander. He served in that capacity until the replacement depot was deactivated to the Indiantown Gap Military Reservation on Dec. 11, 1944. After his departure Camp Reynolds assumed a ghost town appearance.
The last commander was Lt. Co. George Blaney. He took over after the post became the army's first full-time canvas and webbing repair facility. At that time it had a complement of about 300 to man the hospital and to guard the more than 1,000 German prisoners of war. Repatriation of the last prisoners was completed in mid-January 1946.
After the camp's final deactivation the Trimble Company of Pittsburgh was awarded the general contract for razing the hundreds of barracks. The city of Erie acquired 200, Cleveland more than 100, Jamestown, NY 50, Johnstown 50, Connellsville 30, etc. The city of Pittsburgh and several area colleges, among them Thiel, Allegheny, and Westminster, bought additional dozens, as did many individuals seeking to convert them to garages, hunting camps, and other uses. How the many other structures and facilities and the campsite itself were acquired by the Greenville Business Men's Association for future industrial and residential development.
The community, now known as Reynolds, had not one but three names during its wartime history. In 1942 Reynolds came into being as the Shenango Personnel Replacement Depot and was originally named for the nearby village of Shenango. On railroad timetables it bore the Victory, PA designation. Possibly because the original name was somewhat unwieldy, the War Department decreed in July 1943 that the military depot should bear the name of Camp Reynolds in honor of one of the Keystone State's military heroes of the American Civil War. The new designation paid tribute to the memory of Major General John Fulton Reynolds, one of the 51 Union generals ‘who died in battle during the Civil War’. He was killed by a 16-year-old Confederate sharpshooter on July 1, 1863, the first day of the bloody action at Gettysburg. John F. Reynolds was one of the most universally admired officers of the Army of the Potomac. A compassionate man, he was said to be genuinely concerned for the wellbeing of the soldiers under his command.
German prisoners
When World War II began to wind down there were still more than 1,800 German prisoners of war housed in Camp Reynolds barracks. They were among the 15,000-plus German POWS under army control in the Maryland-Pennsylvania-West Virginia area near the war's end.Most of these men had been put to work in area industries and logging camps to relieve the manpower shortage even though this practice stirred public criticism in some areas. They were assigned to factories and plants in the Shenango Valley, Meadville, Youngstown, and Warren, OH. There is no record of any German soldiers assigned to Greenville shops or plants.
Under terms of the Geneva Convention all of the prisoners with the exception of officers could be made to work as the U.S. Army saw fit. Some worked at logging camps in the area of North East, Kane, Sheffield, and Marienville.
According to John Gessner, who was an Army captain at the time and worked with the Germans on frequent occasions, still other prisoners worked at the Reynolds sewing center after the civilian employees had left for the day.
Now an attorney living in Cortland, OH, Gessner recalled that for the most part the Germans were a docile lot. There was one occasion in November 1945 when it became necessary to place 280 of the POWs on a bread-and-water diet after they staged a sit-down strike because their Nazi spokesman had been shipped out of camp. The strike was short-lived.
A few of the prisoners did attempt to escape from Reynolds but in all instances except one the escapees were caught and returned to camp. One man who got away never was captured.
Perhaps the most notorious of the Reynolds' escapees was a young man named Heinz Golz. He attempted three escapes. He was recaptured the first time near Oil City and on another occasion had to be rescued by police from atop a suburban Pittsburgh dwelling where he had been chased by two dogs. In October 1945 a total of 450 German war prisoners were brought to Reynolds after a detainee camp at North East had been closed. About the same time others held at Kane, Marienville and Sheffield arrived at Reynolds to await repatriation.
Some 500 more were moved out on the 25th day of November, with several hundred more awaiting their turn to depart for their homeland. The army's Center for Military History reported that the total number of prisoners based at Reynolds at the end of the conflict totaled 1,868, including 1,839 enlisted men and 29 non-commissioned officers.
Not long before the last of the prisoners departed several hundred of their number was ushered into a post theater and shown motion picture footage they probably never will forget during the balance of their lives. This first area showing of the U.S. Signal Corps films depicting the Nazi atrocities at Adolf Hitler's death camps visibly disturbed the POWs. Many reportedly insisted that the horror scenes taken at Dachau and elsewhere were fakes turned out by U.S. propagandists. The German people were incapable of such atrocities, they said.
The prisoner of war camp, which had been established April 4, 1944, was discontinued Jan, 15, 1946, approximately one month after the closing of the military camp itself.